Sonic's Awkward Phase (1994-1997) | Part 2

[@awesomeocelot7475]

Honestly Fang most likely would’ve been a series main stay as a thief alongside rouge if sonic Xtreme wasn’t canceled since he was supposed to appear in that game. Heck if he became a mainstay he might’ve been on the dark team in SA2B.

[@Wise_Person]

i wish fang became a mainstay :(

[@awesomeocelot7475]

@@Wise_Person me too! Bean and bark as well

[@neonthunder3261]

I love him, wish we saw more

[@CaptBlock]

He may have been on the dark team instead of Rouge.

[@Lumberjack_king]

That would've been great

[@jytvreal]

What hurt sonic the most in this age was the lack of a true main 3d game, something that could compete with mario 64 like sonic 1 did with super mario world, sonic adventure and his redesign saved him but i think it should of been sooner

[@KOTEBANAROT]

Well sonic Xtreme had a curse its not its fault

[@GamingintheAM0801]

I had the Sonic Screensaver as a kid, and the coolest part was when it would transition from one picture to the next. One of the characters would come on screen and do an animation to obscure the current picture, then another character would come out and reveal the next one. Ones that I specifically remember is Knuckles "pulling" the screen like a sheet to cover the picture, or Eggman painting it over using his Eggmobile. And Sonic would bounce across the painted screen to shatter it piece by piece and reveal the next picture. They were all hand-animated and looked really neat.

[@superfandesonic1]

I'm glad you mentioned Jon Burton! He's such a treasure, giving us the music tapes and the Director's Cut was something he didn't need to do but something we all appreciate ❤

[@BinglesP]

He's really cool honestly. He's part of why I respect 3D Blast as a whole

[@CarlMakesVideos]

The MJ connection isn't really alleged anymore, given Yuji Naka basically confirmed it on twitter.

[@ic3_115]

"That's my secret Cap, I'm always awkward" ~ Sonic The Hedgehog

[@LannyLeArtist]

💀

[@Evin2in]

💀

[@sonicloverlol]

No

[@sonicloverlol]

@@Evin2in what

[@Evin2in]

@@sonicloverlol 💀 spam

[@grimpaper]

I fucking LOVED sonic the fighters as a kid! Me and my friends would literally spend all day playing it on sonic gems collection on the weekends. Trust me, this game gets insanely tense when you have 5-6 boys sitting in a small room, cheering each other on.

[@BeeDoodles.]

SAME! I LOVE THIS GAME!

[@IronMadden]

As someone who likes to collect video game soundtracks on vinyl, I'm surprised Sonic R hasn't been pressed on the format yet. Perhaps the licensing needs to be worked out for those songs and/or some patience is needed, but that would be a really interesting OST to have on vinyl to go alongside the other Sonic games that have been pressed, such as Sonic Mania, Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, and even the most recent release of Sonic Spinball. Also a fun fact about Traveller's Tales and Sonic: Sonic R was the last time Traveller's Tales worked with the Sonic IP until 2016 when Sonic the Hedgehog was included in LEGO Dimensions, getting his own Level Pack set for the second year of the game. This is also the first time ever that an official LEGO set was made for Sonic the Hedgehog a full six years before the LEGO Ideas Sonic set released in 2022.

[@Ryno2094]

Probably because it'd be a massive waste of time and production.

[@vxcvxmcrposfdsdfulpdfg]

@@Ryno2094 You're wrong as fuck lmao. Video game wax pressings sell out almost instantly. They're a hot item whenever they get vinyl pressings.

[@Total_Malarkey]

What’s interesting about Sonic the Fighters is that it can be found and played at a SEGA Arcade in Lost Judgement.

[@leeeroyjenkins555]

I would say here is where Mario and Sonic started to really stop being rivals on the same level. While Mario was doing 64, Sonic was doing... baldi.

[@Chillin-jg8vg]

They were just cooking with Adventure 2

[@leeeroyjenkins555]

@@Chillin-jg8vg were they?

[@Chillin-jg8vg]

@@leeeroyjenkins555 Yeah since that is a Sonic game that is really well received and Mario has it's reboot phase which they keep releasing new super Mario Bros on every new Nintendo console that came out you can say whatever you want about Sonic but at least they try to make new games

[@leeeroyjenkins555]

@@Chillin-jg8vg I disagree with everything you said. Theres a lot of people that dont like adventure 2. Dont even talk about phases, sonic heroes pretty much started the whole dark era that would last all the way to sonic colors and would return right after generations. Trying something different means shit when all your games lack consistency and quality. Heck, what even is new? Sonic doesnt even do spinoffs anymore, almost everything is 2d games and 2d games disguised as 3d games. The only new thing they did was frontiers, which is average at best. You have to be really stupid to think Mario didnt had masterpieces like galaxy, Odyssey, and many great spinoff s while they were doing the new mario 2d games. Heck, they are even done with that and drop another banger that destroyed sonic superstars. The same way Odyssey destroyed forces Get your head off your ass and drop your sonic bias. Sonic has never been nominated to goty, let alone win that award. Mario's crossover with the rabbids blows the olympic games off the water. The Mario movie is the highest grossing animated movie. Even fucking Bubsy made fun of Sonic. Sonic has nothing on Mario. He is nowhere close to him, and he will never be. And if you believe otherwise, you are delusional.

[@supper_e1823]

I think the best part of this era of sonic was the art direction. The backgrounds and logos were very detailed. The 2D designs of sonic and all the other characters were pretty much perfected, and the minimal 3D designs had their charm too. Another good thing was the experimental stuff that was going on throughout. Stuff we don’t really see anymore like smaller games in vastly different genres, even if they didn’t always work. More recently the only spinoff games you would see were the sonic boom games, or a kart racer here and there. And of course, the music! Where do I begin ohooohhoohh sonic R, sonic 3D Genesis and Saturn, a few sonic jam songs, sonic the fighters, Knuckles chaotix, the jams were off the charts! Really, the only thing missing from it all was a mainline game, but at least sonic adventure was released. During the adventure area I still think the music was popping and the art was still good, but a lot of effort at innovation had came and went by then, so when the main series ran into turmoil, there wasn’t as much spinoff stuff to supplement, or at least with not as much diversity. TLDR I forgor how much I liked sonic and I had a thought explosion lol

[@Speed_311]

3D Blast is just an isometric version of the game Flicky. And that's enough for me to love it.

[@guitarspud1723]

Never thought about it like that. It's so true.

[@tatertot64]

I'm pretty thankful for this era in Sonic. While there weren't a lot of games that came even close to matching the hype and numbers of the original Sonic trilogy, in hindsight its so awesome we have games as varied as 3D Blast, Sonic Spinball, Knuckles Chaotix, Sonic R, Tails Sky Patrol, Sonic the Fighters, even the ""stinkers"" like Sonic Blast and Labyrinth. If this is a "dark age", it's a pretty decent dark age.

[@thefastcommenter7774]

Tails Sky Patrol and Knuckles Chaotic sucked so bad

[@thefastcommenter7774]

Oh, and Sonic Spinball is the WORST SONIC GAME OF ALL TIME. Worse THAN FORCES, 06, BOOM, ETC. SCREW THAT GAME

[@Pyrodiac]

@@thefastcommenter7774 At least Spinball is a playable game. A bad one? Yes, certainly, but both 06 and boom were barely playable if that. Also, they weren't saying those games are good.

[@Mikeazboy]

“sonic’s the name, speeds my game!

[@rayvenkman2087]

Sonic’s awkward period is kind of like WWF/WWE’s New Generation Era when you think about it.

[@marlonmontelhiggins8570]

They mostly happened in the same years, as well.

[@raziyatheseeker]

Today I learned... - Sega had a love triangle with Conk and Bepis - Honey from Virtua Fighter has a fursona - Five Nights At Sonic's is now validated I guess - Crush 40 was a part of Sonic before Adventure

[@LannyLeArtist]

This comment is an absolute unit.

[@MiniLuigiMighty5]

Also: - Tails went to Vietnam - Slowdown shoes were real - There's TWO Sonic Golf games - Sonic R wasn't even the third game to feature a 3D Sonic - This was the only period in history where you could play as Fang the Sniper :(

[@pandora5051]

FNaS valid?

[@goatattack1490]

Jun Senoue worked at sega a fair amount of time before crush 40 formed. you should read the production history of SA and Crush 40 as a whole, it's very fun. Oh, and there are songs in Sonic Adventure that are actually recycled from Sonic 3D Blast because Jun Senoue wrote both tracks. Compare green grove zone act 1 from sonic 3d blast to "the air" (for windy valley) and your mind will be blown

[@L00D__]

Wdym fnas being valid

[@miyazukini]

nice to find someone who doesn't rip sonic r to shreds for meme points. thanks for the honest reviews!

[@SilverLining1]

KZbinr chaomix is a sonic r apologist if that counts

[@Adamwinters]

Those soul-less CGI rendered eyes...

[@kirotalksyt]

Absolutely TERRIFYING

[@Sing_LoveWRS]

12:36 because the game is “jam packed” with sonic content

[@iandegonia546]

Great to see kiro growing like this!

[@kirotalksyt]

Slowly, bit by bit, everyday we get stronger 💪

[@awesomeocelot7475]

I love the rivals series! Especially Rivals 2! I loved how rivals 2 added full voice acting and 3 more playable characters including a team up from my boy Espio and silver!

[@dre3415]

Thanks for putting me onto the sonic Saturn ost , some of the best music in the series . Genesis ost is amazing too though.

[@Sly88Frye]

That Sonic and Knuckles PC collection I got with a kids meal at Jack in the Box. I also got a PC version of Sonic 3D Blast at Jack in the Box. I still remember how foolproof installing the game was. When I inserted the disc it's like the programmers knew I the kid who got the game from a kid's meal would try to install it, not my mom. Explaining very easy to understand things for a young kid like myself to grasp. "Before playing this game you have to install it to your PC. Until you install the game, it's like according to your computer this game does not exist." Completely fool proof and super easy to understand for a young kid like I was back in the 90s. The PC version of Sonic 3D Blast was basically the Saturn version by the way with the music and graphics. Also I got introduced to another Saturn game called Bug as the PC version of that game was also available with a Jack in the Box kids meal. But yeah I definitely played that PC Sonic and Knuckles collection the most. You went on about how hard it apparently is to control on Sonic 3D Blast. Yeah, try that on PC with a keyboard. lol! Still got the hang of it back then. I would later play and beat the Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast on Sonic Mega Collection when I was a teenager in the early 2000s.

[@FrogInShorts]

15:35 That is definitely sparkling cider, not alcohol. A classic beverage around the holiday. But it does beg the question what a drunk Sonic would be like. Edit: Well now he's drinking a cocktail. Guess the blue hedgehog could only last so long off the buzz.

[@thecallumvibes]

I’d just like to say that it’s currently 4 AM and I’ve been binging your videos for like, an hour. I love to learn about old games and your videos are really interesting, keep up the good work 🫡

[@greenywastaken]

I'm soo happy he made another part when the first was new

[@Essu_]

Saying the music in Sonic R doesn't fit a racing game is doing a great disservice to Metropolis Street Racer's OST, as it was composed by Richard Jacques with TJ Davis returning to do vocals as well.

[@maximumcrystal3562]

your videos are AMAZING! i love the way you present things!

[@kirotalksyt]

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback!

[@LannyLeArtist]

Same

[@tposeinggojirainshoes4650]

That sega harmony segment reminded me of cybershell

[@YuukiTakemoto1996]

I have a tape of the Space Ghost Coast to Coast "Art Show" episode with the ad for Sonic 3D Blast on it. It always makes me think of my favourite quote from that episode: "I just don't know what to do, Tad. I'm at the end of my rope." Sonic and Birdman were probably living in the same dorm room.

[@NintendanGX]

Glad you're showing my favourite Sonic character some love. Sega have had countless opportunities to bring back Fang, and he's easily one of the most unique and charming villains in the series, yet time and time again they've shafted him. He has so much going for him (more so than Mighty The Armadillo, I'd argue), yet he remains the most underutilised villain in Sonic's rogue's gallery. He could've been the rival Sonic would have to face in Sonic Rush Adventure. One of Fang's profiles claims he's from another dimension, so why not have that be the Sol Dimension? Instead, in typical Sonic Team fashion, they created yet another one-off character serving the exact same purpose; Johnny. Sonic Generations for 3DS was a decent companion piece to the console version with its own unique levels, but I think we can all agree it was a missed opportunity to celebrate Sonic's handheld presence. Not only should they have gone all-out with handheld-only stages, but the rivals could be changed too. Instead of Metal Sonic, Shadow and Silver, why not have the player face off against Fang, G-Merl and Blaze The Cat in that order? Fang's bossfight could be a gauntlet of all his Triple Trouble bosses combined, with the final phase of the fight being an auto-scroll section where Sonic has to chase Fang on his airbike before he escapes with the Emerald. Since this was a point where Sonic characters started having famous anime voice actors play the characters, Fang could've been voiced by any number of actors, like Yuri Lowenthal, Sam Riegel or Grant George. Sonic Forces has a lot more glaring issues as a game, but one I found to be especially silly was the lacking roster of villains and their implementation. If Sonic was going to face off against his foes from the past and present, then why not bring Fang back now? It'd be some really cool fanservice and legitimise him as a regular Sonic character like he used to be, beyond the half-cameo in Mania. Were the story in better hands, he could side with Eggman, basically allying himself with the highest bidder, and him and Shadow (who could be a double-agent leaking intel to Sonic's friends) could but heads until Fang eventually snitches on him to Eggman. Also, since Chris Patton was starting to voice act in more games around this time, he could've been the perfect voice for the character. And finally, Team Sonic Racing. Since Fang appeared in the first ever Sonic racing game released in the west, this could be a cool callback. Fang could ride a modified Marvellous Queen, and be accompanied by Bean and Bark. Bean could be played by Ben Diskin, and Bark (who'd rarely speak) by Kaiji Tang.

[@drilldash]

Speaking of sonic the fighters, fang's stage theme is so catchy

[@TaelsDaFoox]

awesome video, though random nitpick, in a gamehut video Jon Burton actually said that he wanted instrumental versions of the Sonic R OST before he had actually heard the songs (he didn't think it'd realy fit) to have the vocals option, and was only ever considering making the vocals be off by default, but after hearing the music, he realized that the vocals do actually fit so he made them on by default

[@Red_Tsar]

Fun fact: Sonic Blast did get a Master System port. To put context: the Master System was incredibly popular in my home country of Brazil, much more so than the NES, to the modern versions of the console are still made and sold to this day! To attend the demand, Tectoy (the local distributor) would make original games port some from the Game Gear directly to the MS, the latter being the case for Sonic Blast. The port was released in December 1997, and alongside the bigger screen resolution, has less colours (due to the more limited colour pallet), the GG resolution in screens that are not the gameplay area (such as the special stages and the title screen) and on the final stage, one of the traps (a wall with spikes) don't work properly. That said, Tectoy would keep making games until porting and releasing Mickey's Ultimate Challenge in December 1998, the last officially released Master System game.

[@gamemaster2819]

Of note for Sonic Jam, one of the main reasons they made it was for Japan. Supposedly, Japanese fans wondered what a Sonic was when they saw Sonic Team's logo on NiGHTS (the mega drive didn't sell too well). It was part of their plan to increase Sonic's appeal in Japan It wasn't too successful and, for the most part, the Adventure era games are FAR more popular in the Japanese fandom

[@overlordalfredo]

Worth noting that Sonic Blast in the EU is by a long shot the most expensive and most collectable GameGear game. It only ever comes up once every 10 or so years and sells always for way more money that anyone should pay for a retro game.... (Upwards of 1500€ cib)

[@imagiking69420]

5:04 the pure sorrow on that dog's face is both hilarious and upsetting.

[@stephaneollui1736]

Ngl (not gonna lie ) Fang has to be my favourite character even though he was a villain

[@Shrapnel82]

It's like puberty. It's awkward, there are big changes, you're not sure of your identity, but it's necessary for growth.

[@sam_64]

Your video is so well researched! I'm impressed! :D

[@TheGamingScription]

I feel like Sonic 3 and Knuckles carried Sonic hard through this phase. Me and My friends were playing that game hard up until Sonic Adventure first dropped and even after lol.

[@JustJulyo]

Sonic can sell anything no matter how dank

[@cashnelson2306]

The name Sonic R always stuck out to me as making no sense while Sonic Jam clicked just fine... but then again I was a 7 year old nerd really mad that Sonic R wasn't an RPG so

[@fakebeluga002]

About Sonic Jam, I thought its name was inspired to a Looney Tunes movie in 1996 under the name "Space Jam" lol.

[@Sirius-Nightstream]

did they really keep the chaotix though? sonic team recreated them from the ground up as completely new characters to fill a slot for sonic heroes. This is because sonic team didnt make the original chaotix and knuckles' chaotix was done by another sega in-house team. the original chaotix are still locked to the "classic era" that iizuka has created

[@lepopcornnaisseur546]

FYI, I believe the "jam" in Sonic Jam is short for "jamboree" (a lavish celebration.) Given how deluxe the compilation is, it is most certainly a lavish celebration of the classic games.

[@Igorooooleynikov]

Sonic blast was my favorite game of all older sonic games. I donk know why, but I really like its visual style. It looks like it made of bloated overbaked clay models animated in stopmotion. And gameplay is quite enjoyable.

[@localdude2979]

2:16 Did they really had Jotaro as guest playable character in thar game??? shits crazy

[@fnln3011]

PEPSI MAAAAAN

[@kirotalksyt]

SWAAAH!

[@nexusmods9068]

I always liked Bark The Polar Bears design, especially the big edgey anime hair. Kinda looks like a Super Saiyan 3 polar bear.

[@nekomarulupin]

The other notable thing about Sonic's Schoolhouse : It reuses the sonic graphics from the canceled Sonic Xtreme game.

[@Fog799]

i like how the little sonic png thumbnail is some missing link between classic and adventure sonic

[@cynicalip]

Honestly, Sega always thought arrogantly outside of the box during the 90's, but after the Mega CD and the 32X, everything went all over the place, especially during the Saturn Era

[@WumBuh17]

Awesome video, so fun to watch and listen to!

[@BDSFormula1]

'Low poly' -has more polys than every sonic game pre-SA2/SADX

[@TheZombersLMAO]

It's kind of upsetting that Ice Cap, Carnival Night, and Launch Base's music are exclusive to the original cartridges but thats what happens when you lose rights to the music you used

[@its_heeho]

Sonic Rivals was pure fire, especially the soundtrack, that was good stuff

[@WohaoG]

He played schoolhouse without a demonic possession

[@iandegonia546]

Ayo. Pepsi man.

[@iandegonia546]

Hey here's the pepsi man theme song. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJScnZZ5rJ5kj6c

[@DisasterEXE]

Watched both videos, liked and subscribed, thank you for making this video!

[@gamecitysavior2910]

6 pak I got for Christmas & me & my brother was introduced to streets of rage.

[@BrianWhoopWhoop1]

New Kiro video is always a good time!

[@GameBearCartridge]

ayyyy sonic the fighters is my fave sonic game, and fang is my favorite character! 💜

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

I REMEMBER THOSE CARTOON NETWORK FLASH GAMES

[@ayhemsebri]

Sonic gems collection is the first game i played i used to watch Sonic x and loved it so playing as sonic in a racing and fighting games as my favorite characters with my cousin

[@levilurgy]

Mad Dash Racing is the perfect blue print for a on-foot Sonic racing game, anyone who played it will know what i mean.

[@nyquilthegreat]

Shout-out to the Denver Dave & Buster's that actually had a Sonic Championship cabinet in the 90s. Ate most of my quarters

[@Oli6906]

Sonic's Awkward Phase (1992-2022)

[@danswope]

Oh man. I love Sonic R way more than I should, plus it introduced Metal Knuckles who was just rediculousy cool

[@LorenzoDoesntExist]

Not sure why you think the LCD games are a burden to talk about. They're mainly just mini versions of every major game including Sonic 1, 2, 3, 3D Blast, R, and Adventure. They use fixed images and paper backgrounds to mimick small portions of these games, 3D Blast even attempts a 2-point perspective, but Adventure's a functional 8-bit game with pixel graphics, menus, title cards, cheats, and an impressive number of stages and bosses from the full game. That's really all there is to it.

[@speedy_oda]

1:49 that's almost litterally just trainer Ethan....

[@mememaixiv3955]

NiGHTS is still one of my all time favorite games :)

[@Euro.Patriot]

Ew, I have it on Wii and the controls are terrible.

[@mememaixiv3955]

@@Euro.Patriot I've never played it on Wii, I can't imagine it working with motion controls lol

[@Euro.Patriot]

@@mememaixiv3955 Did like one level and it was bad.

[@phj9894]

11:27 i remember playing this at 2005.

[@squish6191]

i got a sonic maina ad while watching this how

[@Pyrodiac]

It's called KZbin using your watch history to decide what ads to show. Were you even alive during late 2019?

[@ImExistent405]

They made the JAM pun real!

[@goofy_ahh_cat]

21:43 (casually turns into Chris from family guy)

[@cashnelson2306]

Wow no mention of Lost Judgment having Sonic The Fighters playable? Sounds like somebody doesn't play Yakuza games, what a bummer

[@Alexifeu]

I recently bought Sonic the Fighters on Xbox :) It's cool but I still need to play it with a friend :o I played the mini games from Sonic Secret Rings ( 🤮) sith a friend and we had so much fun because of how bad it was lol. I know gamehut and I did know about the romhack he made :D I still don't like the game unfortunately. Played it on Mega drive.

[@tivvy2vs21]

Technically Sonic into dreams was the first 3d Sonic game

[@VirtuaMaster]

Sonic Pocket Adventure. That's all I'll say.

[@zubayt]

can u make a video on the development of the first sonic adventure and why the og sonic team returned to make that game

[@Turbulation1]

They literally started working on that game straight after they finished Nights into Dreams.

[@zubayt]

@@Turbulation1 yeah. Exactly

[@Dxuser5]

"birth of your first child? Nah we gotta make this sonic game hot!" *proceeds to get ad about baby*

[@DylanMatthewTurner]

I kinda wish SEGA would explore the isometric Sonic again. Can definitely see the Traveler's Tails work tho. It looks like the isometric LEGO Star Wars games on the GBA!

[@goofy_ahh_cat]

I’m surprised sonic is still alive ngl

[@ored85]

2:16 - Jotaro!

[@raghavchari]

My dentist had the game cabnet

[@deimosgaming1107]

massive respect to aspect, made good games

[@FacePomagranate]

6:45 Is that "At The Zoo" by Simon & Garfunkel as the backing music in the game?

[@edgardeitz5746]

Just *merge* "Sonic's Schoolhouse" and "Baldi's Basics" already! Have Sonic be the hero saving the kids _from_ Baldi. And work in the elements scrapped from the two games...

[@dummy3467]

Part 3 sometime maybe?

[@sonic7806]

Man, I wish someone can mod in Sonic CD in Sonic Jam, that would be a full collection!

[@Turbulation1]

Considering the fact Sonic CD already nearly takes up about 700 MB the full capacity of a disc, and Sonic Jam already takes up like around 600 MB. There’s quite a lot of complications. Sonic World and most extra museum features would very likely need to be completely removed. And maybe the FMVs might need to be cut too, from Sonic CD. Maybe the CD Audio in Sonic CD would possibly need to be compressed too.

[@vOrbZv]

On PS3 for sonic the fighters I used to be the #1 player online before one of my old friends I played with passed me up lol. There’s also a video of me rage quitting on YT from like 10 years ago when I was a kid loool

[@user-fm5ju3bb4o]

12:17 jam is a mixture of multiple things like strawberries so sonic jam combines s1 s2 and s3and knux and that makes it jam!

[@dedeed2519]

were is sonic waku waku patrol car?

[@lamiamekni2802]

Kid's Gear was a brand applied to Japanese Game Gear games in the end of the system's lifespan in that country.

[@SunkachuGD]

Sonic 3d blast rescue me generations remix: *cries in corner*

[@FunSubs]

14:41 ngl i wouldve said "whos the lucky guy?" just to piss people off

[@edgardeitz5746]

8:50 - Just *who* is the "Traveller's Tales" mascot, and has anyone tried making a game where he's the playable character?

[@BlueStar91254]

fun fact: sonics moveset in smash is based on sonic the fighters. I'm not sure why they did that considering his moveset in that game is pretty bad.

[@lolcat]

When isn't he in an awkward phase?